Occitan language

The Old Occitan

Old Occitan (also called Old Provençal in older Romance studies) is found in documents and in the poetry of the troubadours. As a language of poetry, it is a common language (koine) that largely bridges the differences between the dialects of Occitan. This language also raises problems, as far as its origin is concerned, because the texts that use it are only available in later copies, some of which reflect the dialectal linguistic idiosyncrasies of their writers. Grammarians of the 13th and 14th centuries have also referred to the language of the Troubadours as lemozi (Limousin). Poitevinic and Languedocic could also be considered.

Linguistic peculiarities

• Existence of a two-casus inflection (as in Old Friulian and Old French), hence freer word order: cavaliers "the knight" in the casus rectus (nominative) sg. versus cavalier "the knight" in the casus obliquus (accusative and all other cases).
• Pro-drop language, i.e. the use of the subject pronoun was not obligatory.
• Peculiarities in spelling: The graphy is not standardized, which is why several spellings are possible for one sound and vice versa.
• "ll", "l", "lh" for [ʎ],
• "s", "ss" can mark voiceless s (i.e. [s]),
• "z", "s" voiced s (i.e. [z]),
• "-g" and "-ch" at the end of words frequently [tʃ].
• "j", "g", also "i" for the sound [dʒ] (intervocalic, before light vowel).

• Special features in phonetics:
• Double sounds do not exist, as is usual for Western Romance languages.
• Latin final -a is first attenuated to "-e" and then to [ə]. The forms on -a preserved in Old Occitan became predominantly -o in New Occitan.
• The Latin diphthong /au/ is preserved: lat. taurus > altokz. taur 'bull', lat. aurum > aur 'gold' (similar to Friulian and Romanian).
• Pronoun hardening is considered likely for Old Occitan.

Example of an Old Occitan text:

Raimon Vidal de Besalú: Abril issi' e mays intrava

1. Abril issi' e mays intrava / April went and May came
2. e cascus dels auzels chantava / and every bird sang
3. josta sa par, que autz que bas / with his companion, some with a high, some with a low voice;
4. e car remanion atras / and because lay backs
5. vas totas partz, neus e freidors / on all sides the snow and the cold
6. venion frugz venion flors / came forth fruits and flowers
7. e clar temps e dossa sazos, / and fine weather and gentle times
8. e yeu m'estava cossiros / and I was full of thoughts
9. e per amor un pauc embroncx. / and a little weighed down by love.

Latin (as literally as possible):

1. Aprilis iit et Maius intrabat,
2. et unaquaeque avium cantabat,
3. iuxta parem suum, vel (voce) acuta vel gravi ;
4. et quod relicta erant
5. undique (in omnibus partibus) nix et frigus,
6. venerunt fructus, venerunt flores
7. et clara tempestas et dulcia tempora,
8. et ego eram sollicitus
9. et per amorem paulum maestus

Linguistic Commentary:

• Divalent inflection: mays (1): nominative (may would be the accusative), cascus (2), neus (5), freidors (5)
• Divisional article: cascus dels auzels (2)
• Rendering of both and by que ... que (3) but also by e ... e (7).
• paratactic constructions predominant: e (4), car (4)
• plural -s becomes voiced after voiced consonant: frugz (6) and not *frugs
• Prepositions and adverbs: atras (4) (< vulgar Latin ad + trans)
• Vocalization of Latin l before consonant: Latin dulce > Old Occitan dols, dulz > dous > New Occitan doç 'gentle' (7)
• the paradigm of stare takes over that of esse in the imperfect (also in Old French!): estava (8) "I was", approach to an opposition between esse and stare as in Spanish.
• Preservation of the Latin diphthong /au/: pauc (9)

The New Occitan

Examples of Neo-Occitan texts:

En prouvençau, ce que l'on pènso / What one thinks in Provençal,
Vèn sus li bouco eisadamen: / comes easily to the mouths (over the lips):
O douço lengo de Prouvènço, / o sweet language of Provence,
Vaqui perqué toujou t'amen ! / that's why we want to love you always !
Sus li frejau de la Durenço / on the pebbles of the Durance
N'en aven fa lou saramen ! / we have sworn !
Sian tout d'ami galoi e libre... / We are all joyful and free friends.
(Frédéric Mistral,1854) - in "graphie mistralienne"

La nuèit e la pluèja e lo gèl, / The night and the rain and the frost,
Pas una estela dins lo cèl... / not a star in the sky...
Quora tornarà l'alba ? / When will the morning light come again?
Encara canta pas l'aucèl... / The bird does not yet sing...
Quora tornarà l'alba ? / When will the morning light come again?
(Joan Bodon, 1975) - in "graphie classique"

Phonetics

Regionally, the phonemes /œ/ and /ə/ also exist.

Pronunciation

Vowels

• a:
• -a-, a- and à are pronounced [a].
• -a unstressed at the end of the word is pronounced [ɔ / o̞].
• á at the end of the word is pronounced [ɔ].
• e:
• e or é is pronounced [e].
• è is pronounced [ɛ].
• i or í is pronounced [i] or before vowels [j].
• o
• o or ó is pronounced [u] or [w].
• ò is pronounced [ɔ].
• u is pronounced [y] or as a semivowel [ɥ], except after [w].

Consonants

• b: [b]
• c: [k]. [s] before "e" and "i". When doubled (cc), [ts].
• ch: [tʃ]
• ç: [s]
• d: [d]/[ð]
• f: [f]
• g: [g]/[ɣ] before "a", "o", "u". [dʒ] before "e" and "i". At the end of words it is pronounced [k] or, in some words, [tʃ]. gu before "e" and "i" is [g]/[ɣ].
• h: mostly silent
• j: [dʒ], [dz].
• k: [k]
• l: [l]. Doubled (ll) it is pronounced geminated as [ll].
• lh: [ʎ], at the end of the word [l].
• m: doubled (mm) it is mined [mm].
• n: [n]. Mute at the end of words. [m] before "p", "b" and "m". [ŋ] before c/qu and g/gu. [ɱ] before "f". nd and nt [n].
• nh: [ɲ]. At the end of the word [n].
• p: [p]
• qu: [k] before "e" and "i". [kw] in other positions.
• r: [r] and [ɾ]. It is silent at the end of words in most words. rn and rm [ɾ].
• s: [s]. [z] between vowels. ss is [s].
• t: [t]. tg/tj is [tʃ]. tl is [ll]. tn is [nn]. tm is [mm]. tz is [ts].
• v: [b], [v] in Eastern Occitan.
• w: [w], [b]
• x: [ts], [s] before consonant.
• y: [i]/[j]
• z: [z]

Morphology and syntax

• Verb: three conjugation classes: 1st group on -ar, 2nd group on -ir, 3rd group on -er/-re.

Example of present tense conjugation

Few verbs on -ir are formed without the suffix -iss-: sentir 'hear' - senti, sentes, sent, sentèm, sentètz, senton

• Occitan is a pro-drop language, so it does not need the subject pronoun, since the endings of the verbs give clear information about the person.

• The negation is formed by postverbal pas.

• The definite articles are lo/lou [lu] (sg.), los (pl.) for masculines, la (sg.) and las (pl.) for feminines. Before vowels, lo and la are elided to l'. The indefinite articles are un (masculine) and una (feminine).

• Nouns: There are two grammatical genders. Masculines end in consonant or -e, feminines in -a: lo filh 'the son', la filha 'the daughter'.

• Plural: As in all Western Romance languages, Occitan has a sigmatic plural, i.e. usually an -s is appended to the singular form: òme, omès 'man, men', femna, femnas 'woman, women'.

Words ending in -s, -ç, -ch, -f, -g, -sc, -st, -xt, -x form the plural in -es: peis, peisses 'fish, fishes', fotograf, fotografes 'photographer, photographers', tèxt, tèxtes 'text, texts'. Words ending in -tz form the plural in -ses: crotz, croses 'cross, crosses'.

• Compared to French, Occitan has a relatively large number of article prepositions, with only the masculine articles fusing with the preposition:

• While Old Occitan, like Old French, had a two-casus inflection, modern Occitan no longer has a nominal case. The syntactic relations are expressed by means of word order and with the help of prepositions.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of Occitan is mostly of Romance/Latin origin and is mainly similar to that of Catalan.

Linguistic peculiarities of some New Occitan dialects

• For Provençal, see Provençal language.
• For Languedocian, see Languedocian language.
• For Gascon language, see Gascon language.
• For the Auvergnatic, see Auvergnatic language.
• For Aranese, see Aranese language.
• For Vivaro-Alpine, see Vivaro-Alpine language.
• For the Nissart s. Nissart.